Podcast Archives

Retro Encounter 375 – Lost Odyssey Part II

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on June 1, 2023

Its gifts were mixed with good and evil both. This week we bring our panelists back together to discuss to discuss the second half of Lost Odyssey. While were were all pretty positive on the first half, some of us really like the latter portions, and some of us really don’t. Did we do all the sidequ… Read More »

Random Encounter 270 – The First Stirrings of Not-E3

Posted by Jonathan Logan on May 29, 2023

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re seeing the beginnings of the Not-E3 season! If you’re a video game fan, it’s getting close to the most wonderful time of the year! There are slightly under two weeks until Summer Game Fest, but we still have a ton of news to discuss from Wednesday’s PlayStation… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 109 – Character World: RPG Character Themes II

Posted by Mike Salbato on May 23, 2023

Welcome to our long-awaited followup to 2014’s Theme Park episode! Episode 21 of Rhythm Encounter was all about character themes, and we knew it was time to do this topic again, because there has been no shortage of characters with their own themes in RPGs since then. We’ve got Dragon Quest, Dragon… Read More »

Random Encounter 269 – Ain’t Nobody Crying in This Kingdom!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on May 20, 2023

On this Saturday’s emergency Random Encounter, we’re discussing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom! We’ve assembled a panel of three people who loved Breath of the Wild, one who liked it, and one who just wasn’t a fan. The plan was to meet up to talk about the entirety of TOTK, beginning to e… Read More »

Retro Encounter 374 – Lost Odyssey Part I

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on May 18, 2023

Okay it might not be called Final Fantasy XIII, but… This week on Retro Encounter, three first-timers get together to discuss Mistwalker’s Xbox 360 cult classic Lost Odyssey. It certainly has some big names behind it, and we want to find out if it lives up to the previous works of the masters. How… Read More »

Random Encounter 268 – A Latte to the Past

Posted by Jonathan Logan on May 15, 2023

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re talking about two highly anticipated sequels (although one is slightly more anticipated than the other). First up, Jono and Mike share their initial impressions of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the long-awaited direct sequel to 2017’s Breath of the… Read More »

Random Encounter 267 – Advancing Onto the Burning Shores

Posted by Jonathan Logan on May 8, 2023

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re talking about a highly anticipated piece of DLC and a very highly anticipated remake (that we were never quite sure we would EVER see)! First up is Caitlin talking about the Horizon Forbidden West DLC, Burning Shores. In it, we visit the post-apocalyptical ruin… Read More »

Retro Encounter 373 – Octopath Traveler II Spoilercast

Posted by Zach Wilkerson on May 4, 2023

Thou shalleth listenen to thisen episode. Luckily, you won’t hear any conversations about broken Early Modern English, because this time we’re not talking about the original. Instead, we have a spoiler filled chat about Octopath Traveler II, a sequel that our panel loved even more than the first gam… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 108 – Hitoshi Sakimoto: Person of Musical Caliber

Posted by Mike Salbato on May 1, 2023

Whether you know him from his legendary work on Final Fantasy Tactics or elsewhere, odds are you at least know composer Hitoshi Sakimoto’s name. And while he often gets talked about for his work in those Ivalice titles like FFT, Final Fantasy XII, and Vagrant Story, Sakimoto has worked on a fascinat… Read More »

Random Encounter 266 – Welcome to Cyberspace!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on April 24, 2023

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re looking at two games (technically, 11 games) that bring us fully into cyberspace! First, Peter downloads his thoughts on the new visual novel based on Disney’s Tron franchise, TRON: Identity. Does it capture the cyber-magic of the classic 80s film and its 2010s… Read More »

Retro Encounter 372 – Persona 4 Golden Revisited

Posted by Michael Sollosi on April 20, 2023

It’s time to make history! This week, we’re revisiting one of our favorites: Persona 4 Golden. After all, with the new release on modern consoles and Wes’ glowing review for us at RPGFan, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit some of our old friends. But there’s an even better reason we’… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 107 – Springtime Serenade

Posted by Mike Salbato on April 17, 2023

At Rhythm Encounter, we’ve created episodes around seasons in the past — Episode 6 was about summer, while Episode 23, Winter Warmer, was popular enough that we revisited winter in Episode 59. And yet, we’ve somehow never had episodes about spring or fall/autumn. Well, today we address one of those… Read More »

Random Encounter 265 – The Games that SHOULDN’T BE!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on April 10, 2023

On this week’s Random Encounter, we’re talking about two games that, frankly, we can’t believe exist. Many of us expect certain game series to “stay in their lane.” Mega Man is a platformer. Doom is an FPS. Metroid is, well, a Metroidvania. But when a series tries something completely differen… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 106 – Rhythm de Chocobo

Posted by Mike Salbato on April 3, 2023

In preparation for April Fool’s Day, someone at RPGFan suggested we finally tackle a long-standing idea: a joke episode that features only chocobo music from Final Fantasy. We loved the idea, but then a funny thing happened — a perfectly normal episode celebrating Nobuo Uematsu’s iconic theme and it… Read More »

Retro Encounter 371 – Like A Dragon: Ishin! Part II

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 30, 2023

More brutal murders than John Wick and more mistaken identities than Twelfth Night. Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! plays fast and loose with the events of Bakumatsu Japan, with multiple historical figures assuming second personas, a legendary alliance forged through a drunken brawl instead of care… Read More »

Random Encounter 264 – Parental Guidance is Advised

Posted by Jonathan Logan on March 27, 2023

On this episode of Random Encounter, we’re talking about how to introduce your children to video games, specifically RPGs. We’re far away from the 1980s, back when most parents saw video games as a “fad” or “waste of time.” Instead, parents nowadays see games as a legitimate form of entertainment at… Read More »

Retro Encounter 370 – Like A Dragon: Ishin! Part I

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 23, 2023

Kamurocho has nothing on the mean streets of 1860s Kyo. Ryu Ga Gotoku: Ishin! was probably a lost cause to most fans of the Like A Dragon / Yakuza series, but SEGA shocked everyone last year with the announcement of a full remake of the 2014 historical fiction samurai drama to arrive in Februa… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 105 – Chained Echoes with Composer Eddie Marianukroh

Posted by Patrick Gann on March 20, 2023

There is nothing quite as exciting as having a composer as a guest on Rhythm Encounter. After offering much praise for Chained Echoes and its soundtrack, we wanted to get to know up-and-comer Eddie Marianukroh, the composer of said game. In today’s episode of Rhythm Encounter, we talk to Eddie regar… Read More »

Retro Encounter 369 – Our Off-Brand Obsessions

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 16, 2023

All RPGs and no fighting games makes Jack a dull boy. We don’t *solely* play RPGs here at RPGFan, and today is exactly the podcast to express that. Four RPGFan panelists discuss a few of their favorite games that can’t be classified as RPGs with even the most liberal interpretation of the term… Read More »

Random Encounter 263 – We’re Feeling the Theatrhythm!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on March 13, 2023

On this episode of Random Encounter, we’re diving into some recent non-RPG Final Fantasy spin-offs! First up, we have the first console entry in the long-running Final Fantasy rhythm game series, Theatrhythm Final Bar Line. Offering over 380 songs from every Final Fantasy game (with m… Read More »

Retro Encounter 368 – Most Wanted Remakes

Posted by Michael Sollosi on March 9, 2023

Today we enter the realm of video game fantasies, but not Final Fantasies. Remakes are a regular part of the video game release schedule in the 2020s, and here at Retro Encounter we have a few ideas on a few that should come soon. A PS2 rogue-like, a Squaresoft RPG never released in Japan, and some… Read More »

Rhythm Encounter 104 – Like a Dragon: Rhythm!

Posted by Jonathan Logan on March 6, 2023

With eight mainline entries, six side stories, and an entire spin-off series, Yakuza/Like a Dragon has an incredible history behind it. And what’s even more incredible is the stunning quality of music that comes with each new title. Since 2005, Yakuza has been gifting us pulse-pounding boss tracks,… Read More »

Retro Encounter 367 – RPGFan Had a Farm

Posted by Mike Salbato on March 4, 2023

E-I-E-I-oh boy I almost went to bed without watering the corn. Oh, hello. On today’s Retro Encounter, we’re breaking out the farm equipment and digging into the ever-growing farm simulation genre. Many of them overlap with RPGs, especially as modern games have expanded their systems beyond crops, an… Read More »

Random Encounter 262 – We Walk Many Paths (At Least 8)

Posted by Jonathan Logan on February 27, 2023

On this episode of Random Encounter, we’re talking about two big recent RPGs, Octopath Traveler II and Like a Dragon: Ishin! When the original Octopath Traveler came out in 2018, we’d never seen anything like its HD-2D art style. Now, Square Enix is back with a sequel, … Read More »

Retro Encounter 366 – Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II

Posted by Jonathan Logan on February 23, 2023

You would expect that first-party game releases for a system would dry up three years after its successor is released. But that certainly wasn’t the case with Zoda’s Revenge: StarTropics II! Released in 1994 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, StarTropics II was a bit of an anomaly. Dev… Read More »

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